Dota Summit 9 Day 3 will see the last set of matches of the group stages plus the tiebreakers before the tournament moves on to the double-elimination two-day playoffs.

Suffering a relatively quick sweep at the hands of Evil Geniuses sure woke up VGJ.Storm. Since then, they haven’t lost a single game, beating both OpTic Gaming and Fnatic. Once again, Roman ‘Resolut1on‘ Fominok has proven that he is as dependable as hard carries go.

As for Fnatic, something’s obviously not right. What it is, we don’t know. What we do know is that they’re at the bottom of the standings. It doesn’t matter what will happen tomorrow now, because they are going to start from the lower brackets come playoff time no matter what happens.

Of course, the playoffs are still a ways away. For now, we’ve still got Dota Summit 9 Day 3 to go, with tiebreakers scheduled at the end of the day if demeed necessary.

Having said that, below are our picks for the five matches already scheduled for Day 3 of Dota Summit 9.

Let’s Do It vs VGJ.Storm

Considering that they’ve already secured a Top 2 spot, VGJ.Thunder might get a wee bit complacent and that gives Let’s Do It a good shot at walking away with a tie. (Team VGJ)

Resolut1on is in full beast mode, and with Arif ‘MSS‘ Anwar also playing out of his mind, it’s hard to envision them losing unless they start experimenting once again. Lucky for Let’s Do It, there’s a chance that might happen given that VGJ.Storm are already all but guaranteed of a top two spot already with a 6-2 record heading into this matchup.

With each team having already proven so far that they’re so much better than most people give them credit for, who do you pick to win in a battle between two of the least-rated teams heading into the tournament?

Normally, you don’t, and I don’t blame you if you skip this matchup entirely. But, if you insist, paiN Gaming should have the upper hand here. From what we’ve seen, it’s all about the mid players for these two teams, and with both of them rather dead even, it’s up to the supporting cast to pick up the slack, and paiN Gaming’s players are just objectively better compared to their counterparts on Let’s Do It.

OpTic Gaming vs paiN Gaming

OpTic Gaming’s series against Let’s Do It was too close for comfort even though it ended in a sweep in their favor. Quinn ‘CC&C‘ Callahan needs to pick up his play against the better mids in the game. But, with the rest of the team capable of picking up the slack for him, we could be in for a pretty similar story in their series tomorrow in Dota Summit 9 Day 3 against paiN Gaming where it’ll be uncomfortably close but will ultimately end up in a sweep for them.

Did you know that OpTic Gaming has had Evil Geniuses’ number all season long? It’s not exactly all that lopsided, but at 4-2, it’s clear that Peter ‘ppd‘ Dager is comfortable beating his old squad.

Unfortunately, as much of a historical edge OpTic Gaming may have, predicting the outcome isn’t so simple. The reason being that this particular matchup could end up being non-bearing before it even begins if OpTic Gaming drops even just a single game against paiN Gaming. If that happens, we suggest going Evil Geniuses’ way. But, if they can sweep paiN Gaming as predicted, then OpTic Gaming will have a clear shot at the upper brackets in the playoffs and have better incentive to try and win this series.

Fnatic vs Evil Geniuses

If things go their way in their series against OpTic Gaming earlier in the day, Evil Geniuses will have a clear path to the upper brackets in Dota Summit 9 Day 3 with how badly Fnatic are playing this tournament. (Beyond the Summit)